I almost declined it—until I rembered sothing from my previous life: a case of drugged monsters rampaging through a city. The field team handling it was annihilated, the backup team arrived too late, and everything burned to the ground causing humans living in the city to be wiped out.
I didn’t even know that Rex and Ezekiel was one of the field team. If I hadn’t accepted this mission, Rex and Ezekiel would’ve surely been the ones killed.
I dashed through the battlefield, killing every Lazari I crossed paths with. By the ti I snapped out of my focused trance, the entire swarm was gone—slaughtered down to the very last body.
None escaped.
Not even the ones attempting to crawl out of the settlent’s borders.
I left the tankers for the Field Heroes—they were struggling, but they could handle the rest. While they were busy finishing off the last of them, I slipped away and hid behind the remains of a collapsed wall, dust coating my boots.
At that mont, Magellan’s voice buzzed in my earpiece.
"Whew! I’m grabbing whatever I can get my hands on!"
I blinked. "...Wait. Where are you?"
"Inside the Lazaris’ underground settlent," he replied casually.
My eyebrows twitched. "How co you’re here? I thought you said you couldn’t co today."
"I couldn’t pass up looting valuable items," he said, full of shalessness.
"And you didn’t even bother teleporting here directly? Do you know what Seth did to in the helicopter?"
"Tell later—I’m in the middle of hoarding all these loots!" he said, sounding far too excited.
I sighed. "Make sure you leave so behind. It’ll be weird if the settlent ends up completely squeaky clean."
"Okay."
A beat later, a swirling portal opened behind , warping the air with a soft hum. Magellan stepped out like a kid leaving a candy store, carrying a massive overstuffed bag slung behind his back, eyes sparkling.
"I thought I told you to leave so behind?" I said flatly.
Magellan blinked at with the fakest innocence I’d ever seen. "I did leave so though."
"And what did you leave?"
"The drugs they’ve been creating," he answered proudly.
I dragged a hand down my face. "Open that bag and toss out so things you don’t need."
"No!" He hugged the bag to his chest like it was his firstborn child.
"Give it," I said, glaring as I reached for it.
"Oh co on! Do you know how much these are worth?" he whined, tugging with all his strength.
"No!"
"They’re worth six digits per item!"
I froze mid–tug. My eyes practically turned into glowing gold coins. "...Why didn’t you say so?"
Just as I loosened my grip, the overstuffed bag split open—and a round tallic object rolled out between us.
It started beeping then we both stared at it.
"...What’s that?" I pointed at it.
Magellan’s face instantly drained of color. "That’s a bomb!"
"A WHAT? Why did you even loot a BOMB?! What for?!" I yelled as I kicked the beeping thing away from .
"Because Kiel would want it! He’s our Armorer!" Magellan yelped before imdiately tossing it back at like so twisted ga of catch.
"WHY THE HELL WOULD YOU PASS IT BACK TO ?!" I scread, juggling the damn thing in panic as it beeped louder.
I whipped my head around, desperate. Then I saw the still-open portal behind Magellan.
"Duck!"
Magellan dove to the ground. I hurled the bomb straight into the portal with perfect form.
He slamd the portal shut the mont it crossed through.
Silence.
We both exhaled in relief.
Then—
BOOOOOOM!!!!!
The ground rumbled so violently I stumbled. What remained of the destroyed building sank another full ter as a second massive explosion erupted beneath us. Dust shot up in a mushroom cloud behind our backs.
The entire battlefield went dead quiet.
Monsters froze.
Heroes froze.
Even the tankers stopped mid-charge, staring at the mini-apocalypse behind us.
A beat passed.
Then I grabbed Magellan by the collar and shook him violently. "Shit! Let’s go! TELEPORT US TO THE HELICOPTER, NOW!"
"ON IT!" Magellan shrieked as he snapped open another portal, both of us diving through it just as the Heroes finally turned in our direction.
This ti, we heaved a long, shaky sigh of relief.
"Hahahahaha!"
Magellan and I snapped our heads to the side.
Seth was losing it, laughing like he’d just witnessed the best cody show of the century.
"Aside from the fact that you can single-handedly massacre monsters," he wheezed, wiping a tear from his eye, "I can proudly say you’re really one of us! Causing havoc even after the mission is finished!"
He gave a big thumbs up.
I snarled back. "Shut up."
"Seriously though," he said, still grinning, "you took care of them quicker than the ti you fild that promotional video."
Even Ghost—who normally had the emotional range of a brick—glanced back and gave a silent thumbs up from the cockpit.
I glared at both of them. "Don’t praise just so I’ll forget how you pushed off the helicopter."
Seth only threw another thumbs up, the idiot.
I leaned back in my seat with an exhausted exhale. "Let’s go. I’m tired."
As the helicopter pulled up, I let my eyes drift back down toward the ruined settlent.
That’s when I saw them.
Rex and Ezekiel.
Both standing in the rubble, both staring silently, not at the battlefield, not at the corpses, not at the crumbled building, but at .
Or rather, at the helicopter I was in.
Seeing them after so long, their familiar silhouettes in that destruction...
I couldn’t help the soft sigh that escaped .
"...Those troublemakers," I muttered under my breath.
But the truth was—
My chest tightened in a way I hadn’t expected.
I turned away from the window.
"Let’s go," I repeated quietly.
Ghost adjusted the controls, and the helicopter rose higher, the field shrinking beneath us.
Rex and Ezekiel never looked away.
~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~
I didn’t go back with them to the hideout. Instead, I had them drop off at the helipad of Nocturna Agency. Since they still didn’t know I was the one who owned the company, they wouldn’t stop pestering about whether I worked here as an employee.
I said ’no’ just to shut them up.
Oh boy was that a bad idea.
"Then are you friends with the CEO? Or the fake CEO?" Magellan pressed.
"I heard the real CEO doesn’t like to show their face, so they made Stephen the dummy CEO," Seth added as if he were discussing so major conspiracy.
"Nocturna Agency is getting famous these days because of how many hunters and rcenaries they’re recruiting," Magellan continued, nodding as if he were so sort of industry expert.
"Many agencies tried poaching their hunters and rcenaries, but they all rejected the offers. Whatever Nocturna is giving them—it’s working flawlessly," Seth said.
"And their employees are loyal too! They won’t even spill who the true CEO is," Magellan chid in.
"I even heard from sources in Scarlet Phantom that the owner of Veritas Bureau is the CEO of Nocturna Agency!" Seth declared triumphantly, looking way too proud of himself.
I groaned loudly and tried to cover my ears. When I glanced at Ghost, he was completely relaxed, clearly enjoying the fact that I was the one being tornted for once.
Before the helicopter even fully landed, I jumped down. Better a sprained ankle than enduring another second of those two.
I thought I had escaped Rex and Christian, but apparently the universe decided to swap them out for Seth and Magellan.
"Bye now!" I waved rapidly and sprinted away like my life depended on it.
I headed straight to the very top floor and opened the door. Stephen was inside his office, answering calls while typing on his computer with frantic speed. He looked absolutely haggard—like he’d aged a hundred years in a week.
I stared at him sympathetically for a mont.
Then I went to the largest office on the floor—my office—and slipped inside. I imdiately got to work, tackling the mountain of docunts waiting for my signature.
It was already afternoon by the ti I finally finished. I stretched my back and was just about to stand up when the door burst open—and Stephen dropped to his knees in front of .
"Miss Remillia, I can’t do it anymore!" he cried, eyes shimring with unshed tears.
I quickly stood and helped him up. "It’s okay. I’ll increase your salary to a hundred thousand per month."
"But Miss—that’s not the poi—"
"NO. TAX. INCLUDED." I added.
He straightened instantly. "Money’s not the point! I will seriously serve you for the rest of my life!"
I smiled at him. "You’re the best."
And with this, I have secured the best employee no one else will ever get their hands on. Hahahahaha!
"Keep up the good work. I’m leaving now," I said as I stepped out of my office.
On my way to the elevator, various hunters and rcenaries greeted with bows.
"Good afternoon, Miss Remillia!"
"Glad to see you here today, Miss Remillia!"
"Did you give Sir Stephen a hard ti again?"
I gave them casual replies as I passed through the lobby and finally exited the building.
By the ti I reached my condo, I found Glacier and Macaron curled up together, sleeping peacefully. I considered surprising them—but the last ti I did that, I was almost frozen to death by Glacier and torn apart by Macaron.
So instead, I intentionally made a loud noise and called their nas. "Macaron? Glacier? I’m ho!"
Both of their ears instantly perked up, snapping toward .
"Master!" Macaron chirped, flying straight toward while Glacier rubbed his head against my leg, purring deeply.
"I brought your favorites~!" I announced, pulling out a whole pack of Antebou monster at and a box of pastries.
Reviews
All reviews (0)